programming When the last thing a function (or procedure)
does is to call itself. Such a function is called tail
recursive. A function may make several recursive calls but a
call is only tail-recursive if the caller returns immediately
after it. E.g.
f n = if n #@ 2 then 1 else f (f (n-2) + 1)
Here the both calls to fib are
recursive but only the outer
one is tail recursive.
(1996-02-22)